Audubon articles from March 2008

Audubon archives from March 2008

Editor's note.(Editorial)
March 1, 2008... It seemed like one of those eureka moments design directors live for: Kevin Fisher received a series of birds' nest photos over the transom from Sharon Beals ("Small Miracles," page 84). "I was impressed by the elegant presentation and the...

Audubon view.
March 1, 2008... Congress will soon vote on critical legislation addressing global warming. I was going to write a column on why it is so important to take bold action now, but Al Gore said it much better in his recent remarks accepting the Nobel Peace Prize...

Everything's rosy.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... The January-February issue was magnificent. Thank you for presenting so many beautiful pictures--from the rose on the cover to the closing picture on the last page--and also for the thoroughly interesting stories and reports, a number of them...

Fired up.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... Bravo to Ted Williams for his courage in revealing the environmental threats of a proposed coal-fired power plant to Grassy Lake and the surrounding areas in southwestern Arkansas ["Smoke on the Water," January-February]. But the threat of this...

A thorny problem.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... Thank you for the excellent--and troubling--article on the flower industry and its use of Latin American countries for its production base ["A Rose Is (Not) a Rose," January-February]. One key element left out is the very purposeful and...

Farewell, Peter.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... Thank you so much for the tribute to Peter Berle [Field Notes, "Swimming Against the Tide," January-February], which brought back so many great memories of him. We first met Peter at an Audubon national convention and immediately could see that...

Tripping trappers.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I was very disturbed by the excellent piece on wolverines and their supposed management in Montana ["On the Edge," January-February]. Of all the factors affecting wolverine populations, including global warming, trapping is the one factor over...

Crane mutiny.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... I enjoyed the article "Breakout" [November-December 2007] on efforts to reintroduce whooping cranes into a flock of self-sustaining size, and it stimulated me to do some research. I am a Canadian living in the same community as William...

Seeing the light.(Letters from our readers)(Letter to the editor)
March 1, 2008... "This Little Light of Mine," by Christine Woodside [Audubon Living, November-December 2007], about compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs), does not work for me. The statement that mercury "varies in its level of toxicity, depending on exposure"...

Last dance?(ENDANGERED SPECIES)(sage grouse)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] With its long, pointed tail plumage flared, its chest puffed, and its head held high, the male greater sage grouse struts and dances, displaying his best colors and choreography to impress his mate. But the cocksure...

Marital bliss.(field notes)(divorce and the environment)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Breaking up is hard to do. But is it hard on the environment, too? Absolutely, says Michigan State University ecologist Jianguo "Jack" Liu. In a study based on data compiled from divorced and married couples in 12...

Bon appetit.(field notes)(bald and golden eagles eating cow placentas)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Tired of the same old eagle watching? Nevada has a new treat in store for you: bald and golden eagles gorging on cow placentas. When hungry raptors can't find live prey they scavenge for other food--and a fresh cow placenta can really fit the...

Good hair day.(field notes)(hair used to clean oil spills)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Short or long, blond or black, hair can absorb oil on a head--or on a beach. When a ship spilled 58,000 gallons of the greasy liquid into San Francisco Bay in November, a number of organizations donated more than 5,000 mats of human hair to...

Watching the wild.(WILDLIFE)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The next time you peer out the window, snap a picture, or visit a park, consider yourself part of the country's growing community of wildlife watchers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently published the...

Crazy for you.(field notes)(black swan attracted to swan-shaped pedal boat)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It's often said that love is blind, and in the case of Petra, a black Australian swan that makes her home on the Aasee Lake in Munster, Germany, it may also be a bit confused. Petra, the only swan of her species on...

Plugging a leak.(HABITAT)(prairie pothole region)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE EMBATTLED PRAIRIE POTHOLE REGION and the minions of birds that call it home are getting a little extra help of late. Since 2006 the North Dakota Farmers Union has coordinated the sale of the areas stored carbon,...

Horse sense.(field notes)("Hippoville" carriages for public transportation)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] To lower emissions, the French are opting for hybrids--19th-century style, that is. Numerous French towns are trading their carbon footprints for hoofprints by bringing back the horse-drawn vehicle. But unlike your...

Bouncing back.(ENDANGERED SPECIES)(Kirtland's warbler)
March 1, 2008... AS THEY HAVE FOR EONS, Kirtland's warblers, migrating from the Bahamas, will arrive at breeding places in the northern Great Lakes in mid-May. But the state of Michigan can no longer lay claim to being the exclusive nesting place for the rare...

Prime-time Thoreau.(field notes)(Henry David Thoreau celebration on Earth Day)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Walden's author showed a keen sense of life's ironies. None might tickle the iconic observer of nature more than a mass celebration of his work this Earth Day, on April 22. More than 700 educators and environmentally minded groups, from Israel...

Ratzilla.(field notes)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Hefty rats (just shy of a pound) are often glimpsed crawling out of sewers or snuffling through trash, but a new giant specimen, identified last fall, puts its urban cousins to shame. A rat five to six times larger...

School's out.(EDUCATION)(outdoor education)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHEN FIFTH-GRADE TEACHER Dave Ellis tells his students it's time for their math lesson, they reach for tape measures and scales and head to the wetlands right outside their classroom. Students in the prairie science...

Don't flush.(field notes)(old pharmaceuticals)(Brief article)
March 1, 2008... Whatever you do, skip the toilet. That's the new advice from the federal government on how to dispose of your old medicine. It recommends tossing your unused grape cough syrup and smooshed pain meds in with your freshly scooped cat litter (or...

A sense of urgency.(GLOBAL WARMING)(Julia Levin)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Before taking on her new position as Audubon's global warming coordinator, Julia Levin (above) served as Audubon California's policy director. In that capacity she worked with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other...

Green guru: advice for the Eco-minded.
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] How can I recycle batteries? Barbara Kenopsky, Milford, CT Somehow, it happens: You end up with a drawer full of spent batteries and no idea what to do with them. You have a nagging feeling they shouldn't be...

Raising the roof: today city skylines are getting greener. Wildflowers and grasses are carpeting rooftops, soaking up storm water, cooling buildings, and providing habitat in the clouds.(Audubon Living)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From the rooftop terrace atop Portland, Oregon's Metro Building, the Convention Center's asymmetric glass spire juts over nearby roofs, the wide Willamette River flows beyond, and, in the background, downtown...

Showtime: though they are now rare east of the Mississippi, greater prairie chickens still strut their stuff on the plains of Illinois, wooing mates and sleepy birders.(Birds)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] My old Chevy compact is the only moving thing on this deserted country road, my sleepy brain zoned somewhere between last night and tomorrow morning. The empty unplanted late-March farm fields are blacker than the...

Lost world: an innovative collaboration between scientists is discovering how, 700 years ago, a mysterious, prehistoric culture overcame its landscape's harsh constraints. The findings may tell a cautionary tale for today's southwest.(Archaeology)(Hohokam, Perry Mesa)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Imagine a science in which discoveries are made after a bulldozer digs up the ground for a new highway, oil pipeline, or strip mall. That's the way most archaeological sites are unearthed today, particularly in the...

Small miracles: birds' nests are ephemeral, often abandoned once the young have fledged. But the sheer ingenuity of these miniature marvels of architecture is as durable as the impressions left by a San Francisco photographer who captures them in their lasting glory.(True Nature)(Sharon Beals)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] IMPATIENT FOR WINTER TO BE OVER, we had put on our boots to go seeking signs of spring but had instead found a sign of the previous summer. We must have walked past this thicket a score of times last summer without...

The long view: Isle Royale National Park draws visitors who like nature rugged and remote. It's Also the site of the longest-running study ever of a predator and its primary prey-even As global warming shows signs of upsetting the natural balance.(Wildlife)(wolves and moose)
March 1, 2008... The old wooden auditorium at Rock Harbor on Isle Royale's northeast end, built in the late 1930s by Franklin D. Roosevek's Civilian Conservation Corps, looms out of pea-soup fog like a ghost ship. Perhaps the $S America, which delivered...

On the map: newly discovered by adventurous travelers and the eco-minded, the island of Dominica is a Caribbean pearl that harbors jewel-like rare parrots and a boiling lake.(Green Travel)(Travel narrative)
March 1, 2008... Where exactly has Dominica hidden its runway? Out the starboard windows of American Eagle Fright 5062, the jungle-clad slopes of Morne Diablotin, the highest peak in the eastern Caribbean, loom like a green, gathering wave. To port, there is...

Savage garden: Charles Darwin called it "the most wonderful plant in the world." Today the Venus flytrap, one of nature's greatest botanical oddities, is part of a combat zone, as biologists fight to protect it and its coastal forest home.(Carnivorous Plants)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] Lane Kreitlow freezes in mid-step, one low-top hiking boot suspended above a tangled mass of wiregrass, inkberry, and Venus flytraps, her forearms slicked with sunscreen and bug dope. "Oh, my gosh, they're...

Of dreams and dread transforming the world, fog is the powerful stuff of life and death, great pictures, and poems.(Archives)(Reprint)(Essay)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] AS PAR as I KNOW, only a handful of American writers have contributed to a single magazine as richly and regularly as Frank Graham b: baser the past four decades. In this issue Audubon marks his 40th anniversary as...

Audobon directory: your quick guide to the National Audubon Society.(Directory)
March 1, 2008... BOARD OF DIRECTORS CAROL M. BROWNER Chair of the Board ALLEN J. MODEL Treasurer ALAN WILSON Secretary ANDREW SANSOM Assistant Secretary Directors STEVEN R. BEISSINGER STEVEN G. BLANK A....

Life of the skies: since discovering birds 14 years ago, an urbane New York novelist has taken an unexpected journey and found his place in the world.(Journal)(Jonathan Rosen)(Personal account)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Everyone is a birdwatcher, but there are two kinds of birdwatchers: those who know what they are and those who haven't yet realized it. In the United States, a lot of people have realized it--47.7 million Americans,...

Pedaling for the planet: whether he's traveling by bike, boat, or boots, this teenager's yearlong, 12,000-mile birding adventure clears a clean path toward an inspiring personal record.(Profile)(Malkolm Boothroyd)(Interview)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Malkolm Boothroyd is wedged into the stern of a 32-foot sailing sloop heeling at a 20-degree angle six miles out from Monterey, California. Oblivious to the six-foot swells, he keeps his binoculars focused on a small...

Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... EDITORS' CHOICE Apollo's Fire: Igniting America's Clean Energy Economy By Jay Inslee and Bracken Hendricks Island Press. 397 pages, $25.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Of all the arguments for curbing global warming and investing in a...

The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One Woman's Fight to Save the World's Most Beautiful Bird By Bruce Barcott Random House, 315 pages, $26 The scarlet macaw stands out among the lush green canopies of tropical jungles in Central and...

Hell on Earth: raising the globe's temperature by a few degrees may not seem like a very big deal. But it is.(ESSAY)(Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet By Mark Lynas National Geographic Books, 335 pages, $26 Though the visible impacts of global warming are adding up, much of what we've set in motion still lies ahead....

Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past and What They Can Tell Us about Our Future.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future By Peter D. Ward Smithsonian Books, 242 pages, $26.95 [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Paleontologists generally agree that 65 million...

The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants by Beth A. Peluso [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] At first glance the ashen landscape left by a forest fire may appear bereft of life. The Charcoal Forest proves otherwise. One by one,...

The Whale Scientists: Solving the Mystery of Whale Strandings.(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... The Whale Scientists: Solving the Mystery of Whale Strandings By Fran Hodgkins Houghton Mifflin Company, 64 pages, $18 (9-12) [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pinocchio's journey into the belly of a whale is a chilling portrait of aquatic...

From our contributors: a selection from current books.(SHORT TAKES)(Excerpt)
March 1, 2008... One of the most important lessons Merle taught me was that, just like us, dogs can change their minds about things and alter their behavior. This lesson occurred after I had thrown a stick for Merle's young protege, Brower. A golden retriever,...

Art of the wild.(American Wildlife Art)(Brief article)(Book review)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Before photographs and film rendered wildlife's beauty and diversity so accessible, drawings, paintings, and sculpture provided the only window through which to view the animals of the American landscape, From New...

Monkeying around.(One Picture)("adoption" of a rhesus macaque by a pigeon)
March 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The story seems improbable, and the adage that photographs don't lie is meaningless in the Photoshop Age. But by all accounts, this infant macaque was literally adopted (dare I say taken under its wing?) by one of...